Sweet home cookin' {Calabacitas con Leche}

15 June 2010

When Hubby first mentioned this next recipe to me, it wasn't something that appealed to me. After all, the only way I had ever had zucchini, was in Gramm's Guisado. But Hubby assured me that his mom's way of preparing zucchini was even better. And sweeter. Sweet?!!! Who knew zucchini could be sweet?

My mother-in-law prepared Calabacitas con Leche (Zucchini with milk) often for her six kiddies. And they all still remember it fondly. Calabacitas con Leche is just that, zucchini cooked with sugar and milk. And it is delicious! It tastes almost like Taninole (Pumpkin with Milk).

Calabacitas con Leche

Ingredients:

8 medium zucchini, sliced

1/3 cup water

2/3 cups sugar*

2 cups milk

Ground Nutmeg (for garnish)

Directions:
Place the sliced zucchini, water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Cover saucepan and cook over medium heat until almost all of the water has been absorbed. *If you have a sweet tooth, add more sugar. These zucchini were very sweet, so I didn't need as much sugar.

Add the milk and reduce the heat to low. Cover saucepan and simmer until the milk begins to bubble.

To serve, ladle the zucchini and plenty of milk into mugs or small bowls. And sprinkle with ground nutmeg. Enjoy!!!

5 comments

A search for “calabacitas” led to your blog, and what nostalgic reading it has beenfor me! My mother, who grew up in Veracruz, was a wonderful cook. Her French grandmother lived in New Orleans, and mother sailed back and forth at the beginning and end of school terms. Cold tomato and courgette (calabacita) aspic was a summertime treat that mother learned to make from her grandmother’s cook, a colored girl from British Honduras. The gelatin was made from a bucket of pigtails fresh from the abbatoir. Later mother used sheets of gelatin, and for company, she’d scoop out pea sized balls of courgette for an especially fancy presentation. Of all the mementos we lost in Katrina, old pictures and recipes are what we miss the most.